Doug McBlog - dedicated to Microsoft Project Partners

Project 2010 and Project Server 2010 Beta available for download plus more!

2009-11-19T08:15:06Z

ARE YOU PROJECT 2010 READY !!!!!

We would like to invite you and your customers to celebrate this significant milestone in the Project 2010 release.

PROJECT AND PROJECT SERVER 2010 BETA SOFTWARE AVAILABLE

Public beta is now available to you and your customers. Please spread the news microsoft.com/project

PROJECT AND PROJECT SERVER 2010 SALES PRESENTATION MATERIAL AVAILABLE

Download the 2010 presentation deck to present to your customers Microsoft Partner Portal EPM Specialized page

ONLINE MINI SALES COURSE AVAILABLE FOR PROJECT AND PROJECT SERVER 2010

Run thru this on demand sale training, Partner Learning Center

INDEPTH SALES AND TECHNICAL (IGNITE) TRAINING IN YOUR REGION FOR PROJECT AND PROJECT SERVER 2010

Attend sales and technical training in your region, Sales and Technical training locations, dates and agenda

INDEPTH DEVELOPER INFORMATION ON PROJECT AND PROJECT SERVER 2010

Includes the 2010 BETA SDK , MSDN for Project 2010

INDEPTH ITPRO INFORMATION FOR PROJECT AND PROJECT SERVER 2010

Includes Upgrade and Migration Resource Center for Project Server 2010 (Beta) TechNet for Project 2010

Technorati Tags: Project Server 2010,Project Professional 2010,Beta,ITPRO,developer

Free demo enhancement utility available to partners

2009-11-17T09:54:33Z

Occasionally a PC utility surfaces which becomes part of your must have. Mine have been the “Snipping tool” in Vista/Windows 7 and a couple of widgets that keep me informed of world events.

The one tool that has gained immense popularity with the field recently and I have seen in every demo since the Project Conference is ZoomIt. sitting here in the Ignite training I can see its value.

This tool allows you to Zoom in on parts of the screen when presenting. Very useful, especially when in a demo image.

Download here ZoomIt Utility

Upcoming webcast covering Dynamics SL and it’s use with MS Project to manage Project Risks and Issues

2009-11-09T22:40:39Z

We have an upcoming webcast covering Dynamics SL and it’s use with MS Project to manage Project Risks and Issues.

Title	Dynamics SL - Managing risks and improving employee productivity
Date/Time	Thursday 11/17/2009 - 9:00am PT, 1hr
Presenter	Kreg Decker
Abstract	Projects are a part of most people's job, and keeping track of projects, resources, and deliverables is important. Attend this webcast to learn how basic project management solutions connected to Microsoft Dynamics SL can help save your company money. Join us to learn how you can benefit from risk and issues tracking, project document management, connected project plans, proposals, and activities.
Reg. Link	http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032428089&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

A focus on Healthcare

2009-11-05T10:49:26Z

Received an email from my Heathcare peers, I thought I would share with you.

Quick Links
Paul Tysvaer, Global Health BDM
HealthBlog: Dr. Bill Crounse (blog)
Housecalls for Health Professionals (blog)
Neupert on Health (blog)
Microsoft.com/Healthcare
Solutions for Healthcare Providers
HealthVault
Microsoft Amalga
PressPass

Greetings Partners!
Dear Partner,
Welcome to November! The newsletter will help you gain a deeper understanding of our commitment to the healthcare market and provide insight into our strategic direction.
This month we showcase Windows 7, Microsoft's historic O/S launch, and Windows phones that give you the familiarity and efficiency of Windows software.
We also feature other new releases, beta programs for products soon to be released, and guide you to other resources designed to help in your professional and personal development.
As always, it's all just a click away!
Thanks,
Paul Tysvaer
Global Business Development Manager, Health and Social Services

Health and Social Services Partner Resources

Sales Training:
Learn about the opportunity in the healthcare industry with this presentation Click Here
Analyst Relations for the Channel (ARC)
Microsoft has teamed with Gartner and Forrester to give Microsoft partners access to the same research and analyst inquiry expertise Microsoft uses to analyze IT markets, position Microsoft solutions, and gain greater awareness of Microsoft competition. Sign up to get insight about your business competition.

•	Gartner
•	Forrester

Connected Health Platform
Find toolkits, solution accelerators, and prescriptive architecture, design, and deployment guidance for e-Health solutions built on the principles of the Connected Health Framework Architecture and Design Blueprint.

•	The Microsoft Connected Health Framework Architecture and Design Blueprint
•	Connected Health Platform Guidance, Tools, and Solution Accelerators
•	Health IT Optimization Case Studies

Close more deals. Help your health customers reduce costs and increase efficiency with infrastructure and platform optimization models and tools:

•	Infrastructure Optimization Assessment Tool
•	Solution Profiler
•	Sales Preparation

Campaigns and Promotions:

•	Global Promotions Directory
•	Explore the recently released Small and Midsize Business Value Campaigns

Health and Social Services News and Announcements

Call for Proposals for Microsoft Health Users Group Exchange 2010 in Atlanta Now Open
Interested in presenting at Microsoft HUG Exchange 2010 in Atlanta, GA?
The Microsoft Health User Group is looking for submissions that detail innovative and inspiring solutions to healthcare, using Microsoft technology and frameworks.

Microsoft Healthcare User Group Events:

•	2/28/2010 - Microsoft Health Users Group Exchange 2010
•	3/15/2010 - Microsoft Health Users Group Exchange 2010 in Barcelona, Spain

New blog posts on Project 2010

2009-11-04T09:46:14Z

Christophe tells me.

… FYI in case you have missed them, the engineering has started a series of blog posts on the new 2010 features/capabilities.

Topics so far (expect a lot more in the coming months):

Start bookmarking http://blogs.msdn.com/project in case you have not done so to learn about 2010.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Project 2010,Microsoft Project Server 2010,blog posts

Search across all the Microsoft Project Blogs

2009-11-04T09:37:40Z

As part of our efforts to continually improve access to Project information we have added Bing search on our new community pages on http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/community.aspx

Want to know how to become “Demo Ready”? Need to know about the “AX” or “SL” story ? across all the Blogs.

Use the search box.

The plan is to extend search across all the links mentioned in my previous email/blog posting http://blogs.technet.com/doug_mccutcheon/archive/2009/10/30/some-useful-microsoft-project-links-to-find-content.aspx .

Also take a look at an addition to the list from Brian Kennemer of MCS, http://blogs.technet.com/projectified

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Project,Microsoft Project Server,Blogs,Microsoft Project blogs

Posting the Performance and Capacity Planning Best Practice for Project Server 2007

2009-11-04T02:15:26Z

Christophe tells me…

I am pleased to announce the release of a white paper written by Michael Jordan, Lead Architect from Microsoft Consulting Services entitled: Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 – Performance and Capacity Planning Best Practices This is a great asset for all customers and partners to ensure they are following deployment best practices to guarantee optimal performance, it is based on best practices learned from hundreds of Project Server 20007 customers engagements as well as scalability labs.

Purpose

The purpose of this guide is to extend the Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 Performance Testing Lab (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2f595e22-c9f1-4376-a8b2-7a7eccd2aba5&displaylang=en) whitepaper by providing Best Practices and Recommendations. Further recommendations are made in this guide based on field experience and deployment successes in real world scenarios against the main areas of the system. The emphasis is on Project Server 2007 in a production environment using physical servers. Reference is made to virtualization in the relevant sections. However, for a more comprehensive overview please read the Project Server 2007 Hyper-V guide (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc982157.aspx).

The guidelines and recommendations in this guide present the “what” and “why”. Certain areas are prescriptive providing steps on “how” to accomplish the recommendation. However, the assumption is the audience of this guide is able to understand the reasons behind the guidance and take the necessary actions within their organization to implement optimization that applies to their scenario.

The guidelines and recommendations in this guide cover technical, functional and process related guidance. It’s important to note these are mutually inclusive of each other and present cross-impacts through the system when a design is not balanced across all 3 areas. It’s expected that administrators of a Project Server 2007 deployment will collect regular operational and functional data, and over time trend the system for performance and scalar depth. Optimization in all areas is required on a regular basis to maintain an efficient system and identify remediation steps through operational policies.

Audience

The intended audience includes IT administrators, database administrators, data architects, system engineers, project managers and business analysts who may be involved in implementing Project Server 2007. This document is designed for a reader who has general knowledge of all the required application and platform components that support Project Server 2007.

Additional Project Server 2007 resources for IT Professionals can be found on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/projectserver/default.aspx

Are your customers Project 2010 ready? Invite them to register for the Beta

2009-11-03T16:26:40Z

In the month of November we will be making a publically available Project and Project Server 2010 Beta. We would appreciate your support in making your customers aware of this and getting them to sign up to the Beta at http://www.microsoft.com/project/2010/en/us/default.aspx

One way I am doing this is including the following in my email signature. Feel free to do the same. Any other ideas to drive Beta uptake, let me know?

Some useful Microsoft Project links to find content

2009-10-30T18:44:37Z

Been doing some documentation recently and collected a group of links relevant to the Project business. Thought I would share this with you. Let me know if you have any others.

Microsoft Blogs

Brian Smith - Project support
Project Programmability - Project API programming
ITPRO – Christophe Fiessinger blog
Project - Project engineers blog
EPM Content - Technical content focused on EPM
Doug McBlog - Project partners blog
SharePoint Team - SharePoint teams blog
MPUG Blog – Microsoft Project Users Group blog
http://blogs.technet.com/projectified , brian kennemer endlessly obsessing about project server, so that you don't have to

Other

Virtual PC Guy - (Hyper-V, Virtual PC and Virtual Server)
John Howard - - (Hyper-V, Virtual PC and Virtual Server)

Sites

Project Developer Portal - MSDN
Project Server TechCenter - Technet
Downloadable content for Project Server 2007
Project 2007 (Office Online)
Project Portfolio Server 2007 TechCenter
www.microsoft.com/project - Main Project marketing site for 2010 and 2007
Find a partner – Worldwide, find the location of a Microsoft EPM Specialized partner near you.
EPM in market solutions – Find in-market partner solutions
Corp sponsored solution scenarios – Discover IPM, PPM, CPIC and ALM
Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solutions online tours
Become a Microsoft EPM/PPM Microsoft Partner – Link to the Microsoft Partner Portal

Video Channels

www.youtube.com/MSFTProject - Popular landing spot for Project videos
http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/channels/microsoftproject - The Microsoft.com , Project video channel

Facebook

Project on Facebook Project Facebook presence, become a fan!

Twitter

http://twitter.com/MSFTProject Project Twitter account

Community

http://www.mpug.com/ Microsoft Project User Group

PROJECT 2010

ANNOUNCING the launch of Project 2010 technical resource centers at TechNet and MSDN and Forums!

2009-10-29T23:39:51Z

Public announcement (customer and partner ready)

We are pleased to announce the availability of the following Microsoft Project 2010 technical resources:

1. Project 2010 TechCenter

At http://technet.microsoft.com/projectserver/ the following areas are covered:

Planning, Deploying and Operating Project 2010 Environment

including Project 2010 hardware and software requirements and deployment guidance

· Upgrade and Migrating to Project 2010 through a brand new “Upgrade and migration” resource center

2. Project 2010 Developer Center

At http://msdn.microsoft.com/project/ developers will find growing list of resources including Project 2010 Beta Software Development Kit (SDK) as we move closer to Project 2010 Beta in November.

3. Project 2010 Forums

Get all your Project 2010 end-user, IT Professional and Developer questions answered by product experts from Microsoft and the community (Project MVPs):

Project Professional 2010 General Questions and Answers: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/projectprofessional2010
Project Server 2010 General Questions and Answers: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/projectserver2010
Developer related Questions and Answers: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/projectprofessional2010,projectserver2010

Questions & Answers

Q: Great content! Is there a plan to grow it?

A: Yes, this is the first milestone of a journey, will be continually publishing new content with the upcoming Public Beta in November and until Project 2010 is released in the first half of 2010.

Expand Your EPM Practice—Fast-Track Your Business with Practice Accelerator for Microsoft SharePoint and get ready for 2010!

2009-10-27T19:59:59Z

Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 (SharePoint) is the fastest-growing server product in Microsoft’s history. With more than 85 million licensed users, SharePoint is the market’s leading portal & collaboration server. As organizations around the world deploy SharePoint, they consider engaging deeply skilled Microsoft Partners to assist with their planning and deployments.

Practice Accelerator for Microsoft SharePoint is a service designed to build your practice around SharePoint solutions. Practice Accelerator focuses on building your capacity by enabling Partners to service the mid-market space at scale and delivered via Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

Practice Accelerator provides a comprehensive framework consisting of customer-ready methodology, tools, and skills. This ensures that you are able to provide great experience to your customers on a consistent basis.
Practice Accelerator will help you jumpstart your SharePoint practice. Leverage Practice Accelerator to increase your revenue stream and enhance market positioning.

Upon completion you will be able to successfully identify customer requirements and scope, analyze, plan, and deploy SharePoint. This offering provides you with a detailed delivery framework covering every step from pre-engagement to post-delivery stages, including materials that you can leave with the customer. It also includes a series of tools, templates, best practices, hands-on labs and guides. This material will help provide architecture design as well as post-deployment maintenance and monitoring recommendations.

The Practice Accelerator for Microsoft SharePoint covers the following components:

Customer Engagement
 Tools to elicit customer needs
 Effectively scope the engagement
 Design a solution that maps to customer needs
 Customer leave-behinds for ongoing maintenance and governance

Architecture Guidance
Easily customizable reference architecture documents for you to design and provide to your customer

Project Guidance
Guidance and templates for planning and managing your customer’s projects

Planning & Design
Planning guides for providing guidance around decisions to be made regarding:
 Physical and Logical Designs
 Capacity Planning
 Taxonomy and Information Architecture
 SharePoint Security
 Portals and Collaboration
 Enterprise Search

Delivery Details
Cost: $4,000 US (or equivalent) per Partner
Duration: 16 hours total; 4 hours per day over 4 days
Number of attendees: Up to 4 consultants

North America

Time: 9:00 A.M.–1:00 P.M Pacific Time, Monday–Thursday (four days, four hours each day)
Upcoming dates:

November 9-12
November 16-19
December 7-10
December 14-17

United Kingdom

Time: 9:00-13:00 UK time. Monday–Thursday (four days, four hours each day)

Cost: £2400 plus VAT – GBP per partner (Up to four partner consultants per partner organization can attend for this fee.)

Upcoming dates:

October 26-29
November 23-26
December 14-17
January 25-28, 2010
February 22-25, 2010

To register, https://partner.microsoft.com/40114791?msp_id=practiceaccelerator

For more information, contact pasales@microsoft.com .

Info snippet – service for building a logo

2009-10-21T14:12:41Z

A partner who had recently refreshed their branding to a rather nice logo, went about it in a novel way which I thought I would share with you. They used a service that offers a competition format.

Whiles I cannot attest to the process, I personally liked the end result. For you reference and consideration , see Http://Logotournament.com

More SharePoint 2010 information for you

2009-10-20T17:14:56Z

The following SharePoint 2010 content was disclosed today at the SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas, this is very exciting times for Project 2010; with the ability to have Project Professional 2010 sync to a SharePoint 2010 task list (recent blog post from the Product Group is here Project 2010: Introducing Sync to SharePoint) and the fact that Project Server 2010 is built on SharePoint Enterprise 2010.

Top SharePoint 2010 Resources

- SharePoint 2010 Website - to view SharePoint 2010 in action

- SharePoint 2010 forum- for SharePoint 2010 questions

- SharePoint 2010 PressPass- for the SPC 2009 keynote video, a Q&A with Jeff Teper, and more

- SharePoint 2010 Developer Center - for developer info (MSDN)

- http://www.mssharepointitpro.com - for IT Pro information (TechNet)

- http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint - for more SharePoint information

The Project business delivered two sessions today at SPC09 (on more on Deployment/Upgrade/Extensibility on Wednesday):

- Project Professional 2010 Overview

- Project Server 2010 Overview

Enthusiasm and feedback for both were extremely positive (yes recordings will be made available at a later date) as well or the questions we got at the Project 2010 booth.

The message to our customers and partner “Yes , Project Server 2010 is the Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise 2010 application for project management”.

SharePoint 2010 is go! News from the SharePoint Conference

2009-10-20T02:50:11Z

SharePoint 2010 was publically disclosed today at the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas. This means that we can now talk about the full capabilities and benefits that come to our customers that come with the installation Project Server 2010.

Marrying the features that Project Server 2010 lights up in SharePoint Enterprise 2010 and taking it further with the additional capabilities available should make a “knock out” project environment, second to none.

Also announced was that public beta for Project Server 2010 and SharePoint 2010 will be released in November.

Features I noted through the keynote were the ability to deploy documents sets as a content type; the ease at which LOB data such as that held in the Project Server database can be exposed and the ability to link to dynamic charts up to date charts as part of blog posting (thinking status reports) were a small part of this new release.

Next challenge, how to get informed.

My first stop would be the official SharePoint site at http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx

My second would be the blogs listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/

Happy reading.

Project 2010 Ready partners talking at the Sharepoint Conference

2009-10-15T19:27:53Z

Thank you to the following partners who have indicated they are “Project 2010” ready and will be talking about Project 2010 at the SharePoint Conference.

UMT Consulting
The Versatile Company
The Occam Group
Robbins-Gioia
RCM Technologies
QuantumPM
Project Hosts
MSProjectExperts
LMR Solutions
IIL
Campana & Schott
Blue Badges
Advisicon